Jesus takes up the Cross

Abstract

Dionigi Bussola sculpted thirteen terracotta figures between 1672 and 1681 for this chapel with the help of his assistant Giovanni Battista Maestri, who was called il Volpino. The scene illustrates the second episode of the Stations of the Cross, in which Jesus begins to carry the cross uphill to Calvary, where he would be crucified. Bussola and Volpini's sculptures are set against a background frescoed by Giovanni Sampietro in 1703. The painting has suffered substantial damages due to damp and cold, but the houses it depicts bear a resemblance to the type of medieval buildings that surround the old town square in Domodossola. Sanpietro also painted the figures inside the chapel, which may have remained unpainted until this point. Some of the figures in this chapel make direct references to characters or typologies established at Varallo, the first Sacro Monte in northern Italy (est. 1486). The man handing the cross to Jesus, for example, bears a grimace and facial features that recall the so-called portrait of Leonardo da Vinci in Varallo's Crucifixion Chapel (c. 1520). Behind them another man in a hat strides forward and points up, a pose that seems to be a direct quotation of a gambling soldier in that same chapel at Varallo. On the right-hand side of this chapel, a woman and child with darkened skin watch Christ being mocked, referencing a similar pair in Jean de Wespin's Climb to Calvary chapel at Varallo (1599 - 1602). / The Sacro Monte, or Monte Calvario, of Domodossola was founded by two friars from the local Capuchin convent, Gioacchino da Cassano and Andrea da Rho. In 1656, they planted a large cross atop the ruins of the medieval fortress that had previously occupied the site and began building the sanctuary on top of the hill in July of the following year. This was the first Sacro Monte dedicated to the Via Crucis, or the Stations of the Cross. Early construction efforts were led and funded by Giovanni Matteo Capis (1617 - 1681) a wealthy merchant who had previously served as the mayor of Domodossola, the director of its hospital, and a leader in the local inquisition.